The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has alleged that the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN) had been coerced and fooled into lifting a ban on the supply of food products to the southern part of the country.
The CNG, while criticizing the involvement of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and the former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, whom they described as a “self-appointed enemy of the North” in the lift of the ban, said there was no solid commitment for the guarantee of the future of northern settlers and traders living as minorities in the south or carrying out legitimate businesses there.
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A statement issued by the CNG spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, stated that “with earlier reports that the leadership of AUFCDN was arrested and detained by the security and intimidation of union leaders out to enforce the blockade by the Military, everyone can see that the strike suspension was far from voluntary.”
The group accused Governor Bello of not showing any concern over the plight of northerners when they were attacked during the #EndSARS uprising and at Sasha, Ibadan.
“For someone like that to suddenly move to intervene to halt legitimate pressure to extract compensation for the innocently attacked northerners is certainly mere self-service aimed at personal political ascendancy.
“The involvement of Bello with former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode – a self-appointed enemy of the North who would leave no stone unturned in furthering the plot to destabilize the North, is another pointer that the intervention was mischievous and certainly not in the interest of northerners,” it stated
The group questioned why the agreement to lift the ban did not disclose any commitment by the authorities on the demand for payment of compensation for lives and property lost by northerners and urged northerners to be wary of southern politicians and their northern collaborators “whose eyes are only primed on the presidency and not the general safety of the country and the North in particular.”
